Fear not, True Believers, as this is a spoiler-free review!
Marvel’s Spider-Man completely understands both the character of Peter Parker, and what it is that makes a Spider-Man game fun. Though it has a few troublesome technical hiccups, Spider-Man is a fantastic action game that can only improve with future installments.
Marvel’s Spider-Man
Developer: Insomniac Games
Price: $59.99
Platforms: PS4
MonsterVine was provided with a PS4 code for review.
Peter Parker is my favorite fictional character. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been able to relate to him and appreciate his struggles. I’m not alone in this regard, as I’m sure many of you readers have sympathized with Peter, from being ostracized in school for being a dork to barely getting by financially. Peter Parker is the hero that anyone and everyone could be and should aspire to be, and Insomniac understands this better than any game developer to date. I’d go so far as to say that Insomniac’s Peter Parker, and their Spider-Man, is absolutely one of the best representations of the character outside of comics.
Like the coveted Arkham series of Batman games (rest assured, this is the only time I’ll draw a comparison), Marvel’s Spider-Man takes place in a world that mixes the best parts of multiple comic continuities together. This isn’t a 16-year-old Spidey who’s meeting his famous foes for the first time, this is an adult Peter Parker who has been at the whole “superhero” thing for at least eight years. Peter’s got enemies, allies, friends, and foes who have all been actively involved in his life, which gives the writers the perfect amount of narrative flexibility. Background info like Uncle Ben’s death, Pete’s relationship with Mary-Jane Watson, his friendship with Harry Osborn; all of these things have already been established, meaning Insomniac can (and does) put all of their focus into making a new and interesting story right off the bat.
At the beginning of the game, Peter has a pretty average life (outside of being Spider-Man). He’s single, behind on rent, and bad at maintaining a social life. Working under a brilliant scientist, Peter splits his days up between creating new prosthetic technology for amputees and protecting New York from gangs and supervillains. After defeating one of his more iconic foes, Spider-Man finds himself up against Mr. Negative, a more dangerous supervillain that wants nothing more than to make New York, and its mayor, suffer. Things just get harder for Peter, as a number of his greatest foes team up to wreak havoc on the Big Apple, while yet another new villain emerges from the shadows.
It feels like the story takes a bit of inspiration from Spider-Man stories like The Gauntlet and Brand New Day, as Spider-Man is run ragged by the relentless onslaught of enemies that he has to fight. I was enthralled for the entire campaign, as I always wanted to see what Peter and his allies would do next. This is because of the amazing characters that make up Marvel’s Spider-Man, from the menacing villains to the exceptional side-character. Miles Morales and Mary-Jane have their own character arcs that fit perfectly into Peter’s overarching story without taking away from any of the major moments in the overall story. Mary-Jane fares especially well, as her playable segments provide new details and a new perspective to each act of the story.
There’s a lot of clever world-building outside of the main story as well. Daily Bugle covers, J. Jonah Jameson’s broadcasts, and numerous files and audio journals are scattered around every corner of Insomniac’s New York, adding new layers of depth to the already rich setting of Spider-Man. Small features like riding the subway to fast-travel or high-fiving civilians makes New York feel real, or at least as real as New York could be if it housed numerous super-powered individuals. The inclusion of some top-notch Marvel characters in supporting roles is quite a nice touch as well, as they serve the world of Marvel’s Spider-Man while providing some healthy fanservice, all without feeling forced.
Combat is immensely satisfying because it’s not only varied and wonderfully rhythmic, but because it captures the spirit of Spider-Man perfectly. Spidey’s moves are acrobatic and full of style, as every punch, kick, and dodge weaves together to look perfectly choreographed. Throw in the plethora of unique devices available at all times, and you have a ton of varied attacks and techniques that you can mix and match at will. I found myself using web bombs and impact webs the most, as I loved webbing enemies to walls more than anything, but there are plenty of different gadgets to use, a few of which don’t even use webs.
Free-roaming is a blast outside of a decent number of frustrating bugs. I would get stuck inside the models of buildings or radiators a bit too frequently, making me reload the last checkpoint each time. Overlays and pieces of the HUD would sometimes get stuck on the screen until I reset the game, and occasionally, an enemy I had to beat would get stuck in a wall or a floor. These things will likely be patched out pretty quickly, but there are enough technical issues to make roaming a bit frustrating at times. Also as a minor gripe, I wish the camera was a bit further away from Spidey when you’re in enclosed buildings. This is a pretty rare thing, as the camera is completely fine outside of these small and infrequent segments, but it irked me a bit nonetheless.
Outside of these bugs, I loved swinging around New York for the entirety of my playthrough (and keep in mind that I 100%ed the game, so I was swinging around for quite some time). The sense of momentum that comes with swinging is exhilarating, and as cliché as it is to say in this sort of review, you do indeed feel like Spider-Man. Swinging between buildings, zipping onto rooftops, diving and doing flips through the air; it’s everything you’d want from an open-world Spider-Man game. After Spider-Man 2 and Ultimate Spider-Man, it felt like the fine art of web-slinging in Spider-Man games was long-gone. Thankfully, Insomniac has proven this assumption wrong.
There are lots of different challenges and quests around New York, many of which focus on different types of gameplay. There are camps and criminal bases that require stealthy wall-crawling, crimes that test your combat skills, and specific challenges that are run by a certain Marvel character that will test you in every regard. You can even take pictures of famous landmarks around the city, some real and some fictional. This gives you a look at some of the many easter eggs that fill Marvel’s Spider-Man, though even the most ardent fan will have to rack their brain for some of the references. New York feels full of challenging content and collectibles, which some would say is accurate to the actual city itself.
Levelling gadgets up and unlocking suits requires experience and a variety of different tokens, all of which are obtained by completing side-activities. This provides a consistent scaling of abilities throughout the game while incentivizing you to explore outside of the story. The variety of suits is impressive, though a few big ones seem to be missing. I get why the Symbiote isn’t available for narrative reasons, but it still would have been nice to use outside of any plotlines. I was also desperately hoping for a Bombastic Bagman outfit, but I suspect the usual X-Men/Fantastic Four trickery is may be at play here. Still, having iconic suits like the Scarlet Spider, Spider-Man Noir, Big Time, Homecoming, and a cel-shaded classic costume makes it difficult to whine too much.
Marvel’s Spider-Man looks absolutely gorgeous. The city, day or night, is full of lights and vivid colors, with many buildings looking nearly identical to their real world counterparts. It took me a little while to get used to the human character faces, but they stay out of the uncanny valley for the most part. Spider-Man’s suits are all incredibly detailed, with a few suits featuring some rather impressive reflective texturing.
While the voice acting is strong overall, I’d like to commend Yuri Lowenthal’s voicework as Spider-Man in specific. Yuri really nails the more emotional moments in the story while perfectly pulling off Spidey’s quip delivery. Though each Spider-Man voice actor has their own merits, Yuri stands with Josh Keaton and Christopher Daniel Barnes as my top three voices for the character.
The Final Word
Marvel’s Spider-Man is largely a rousing success that both successfully crafts its own Spider-Man universe, and is incredibly fun to play. It has a few technical hiccups, but that’s the only speedbump in an otherwise exceptional action game that is hopefully the first of many Spider-Man games in this series.
MonsterVine Review Score: 4.5 out of 5 – Great
